Cinnamon Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

How great is coffee cake? There aren’t that many cakes that can justifiably be eaten at any time of day. While we may not always need an excuse to eat cake for breakfast, it’s nice to do so with a tad less guilt sometimes.

This particular coffee cake is a slight twist on the traditional with the addition of a cream cheese swirl. All the things we love about coffee cake are still there — cinnamon, nuts, crumb topping. There just happens to be some cream cheese goodness swirled into it the delicate cake to take it to new levels of fabulousness.

Don’t be put off by the long-ish recipe. This is really far quicker and easier to put together than it appears. You will go through a lot of measuring spoons, bowls, and such, so make sure your dishwasher is ready for that. But, once you take a bite, you’ll know it was worth every dirty bowl.

To make the cream cheese swirl:

To make the cake:

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating just until combined after each addition. Mix in the vanilla.

Gradually add the flour mixture, mixing just until combined. Stir in the sour cream and mix just until combined.

Transfer the batter to the prepared pan. Top the batter with spoonfuls of the cream cheese swirl. Use an up and down motion with a knife to swirl. Sprinkle the crumb mixture evenly over the top of the cake.

Bake 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

I thought the coffee cake was a little dry. Need to double the topping in order for it to look like the picture. Also would suggest doubling the filling just wasn’t enough either topping or filling to satisfy us.

It looks so delicious. Loll. 🙂 I’m really pleased to see the image of Cinnamon Cream Cheese Coffee Cake. It is really full of taste. Definitely I will try it today/tomorrow. Thanks for this allocation. 🙂

I baked this cake for Easter this year – the coffee cake duties usually falling to my mother or grandmother – love ’em to bits but theirs were always a bit on the dry side – this recipe was wonderful and will become a new Easter tradition! Just love your blog! Thanks!

This is really far quicker and easier to put together than it appears. You will go through a lot of measuring spoons, bowls, and such, so make sure your dishwasher is ready for that. But, once you take a bite, you’ll know it was worth every dirty bowl.

I followed the recipe exactly.
The next time I make this I would add a touch of orange zest for the cake batter.

I also put mine in muffin tins.

If you do use muffin tins (I didn’t use the paper inserts) put less cake batter in the bottom. Filling it 1/2 full, then cream cheese (forget knifing it in, just layer it on top), then the crumble mixture. Do not overfill because the crumble mixture melts. Then when you pull it out of the oven as it cools into a solid the sugar will become crumbly.

You can leave the little cakes in the muffin tin for a few minutes but you should remove them or the cake will become soggy.

I made a full batch and put half of it in the freezer in an air tight container for those unexpected guests.

Danica, as an alternative, you can alternate adding the dry ingredients and the sour cream. Begin and end with the dry ingredients. When I’ve made this, it didn’t dry out quickly, so I’m not sure what is different with yours.

Question, instead of sour cream, could you use buttermilk for your recipe? I’ve used buttermilk in a diff recipe for coffee cake and it turned out great! I’m a little nervous to use the sour cream. Lol.

I made this coffee cake on Sunday, for a co-worker’s birthday. Let me just say….wow! I was impressed with how well it turned out. The batter got a little too stiff for me to work with, even when alternating the flour mixture with the sour cream, so I added a 1/2 c. of buttermilk, and that did the trick for me. This cake was amazing. Everyone raved about how flavorful and moist it was. This recipe is a keeper.

I made this cake for Mothers Day Brunch. I was very pleased with how it turned out but I think next time I make it I will double the cream cheese swirl. The 4 oz. just didn’t make much and it it is such a nice addition that you might as well just use the whole block.

HI,
I made this amazing recipe for church coffee hour. My husband is the taste tester, tough job. He loved it, and I know everyone else will too. It is a thicker batter, but spreads out just fine. Great recipe, wouldn’t change a thing!
I

Making this for my sister in laws birthday breakfast. My house is smelling incredible! I already put it in the oven and realized i forgot to add the sour cream!!!! Which is a must for all cake recipes. I hope it will take good. Did this happen for anyone else? 🙁

Hi, Sara. I’m not sure the leavening will work as well if you wait that long to bake it. You can always bake in advance and then put it in a low heat oven (250°F or so) for a few minutes to warm it up.

I followed the directions however my cake batter was extremley dry and not the right consistency for a batter. I added 1 cup of milk which may have been omitted in error ? The batter would not have filled my 9 x 12 pan without being thinned out.

Just made it. I doubled every ingredient of the cream cheese swirl thanks to the comments I read plus who doesn’t love more cream cheese? It turned out good but not great, the cake part was dry in my opinion and my husband. Flavor was good, sweet but not too much. But definitely if I do it next time I will do just 2 cups of flour instead of 3. Cake batter was very thick so I think that is why it didn’t turn moist like other comments I read. Last thing that I would change is to melt the butter of the crumbles part so the top can be more even.

I had to add at least a full cup of milk to make this batter even close to useable. I doubled the cream cheese and added an egg to make it more like a cheesecake filling. Topping appears very sparse. I should have doubled that as well. It baking now so we will see how it turns out…

This is an Amazing recipe! I did as others suggested and doubled both the cream cheese layer and the crumb topping. It was a real hit for my summer BBQ. I’m a decent baker and thus is a definite addition to my favorite desserts. Thank you!

I’ve never written a review, but I absooutely have to for this one. This cake is insanely delicious!! I doubled the topping because that’s my favorite part, and added fresh blueberries from my backyard. I can’t get enough of it!!!

This was such a delicious coffee cake: even though I messed up the recipe!😂 I didn’t want to waste cream Cheese so I used the whole package (8 oz) but didn’t double the rest of the swirl ingredients, so the mixture was quite thick and wouldn’t “swirl.” So I just spread it on like icing! It came out really good and there was a cream cheese taste with every bite!😍 Thank you for sharing!

I made this today for dessert…I had to sneak a taste before serving. ☺️ I didn’t have sour cream, so I substituted with 1 1/4 Cups of plain yogurt and a teaspoon of baking soda mixed well…I was worried it wouldn’t work, but it was great! The cake came out super moist! I actually doubled the cream cheese mix and the crumb topping (because who doesn’t love excess cinnamon?) and that, too, was fabulous! I’ll definitely make this one again! Thanks for the recipe!

I made this last weekend and it was EXCELLENT! I did what some suggested and doubled both the crumb topping and the cream cheese swirl. It was nice and moist and reminded me of an Entenmann’s cake! A keeper of a recipe for sure!

I made this for Easter brunch at my church yesterday. It turned out nice and moist and delicious. I did double the topping and the cream cheese mixture. For the batter I put half in the pan, covered with the cream cheese mixture and then cover that with the rest of the batter, then the topping. I didn’t “swirl” the cream cheese mixture because that never turns out right for me. Everyone loved it. Thank you so much for the recipe.

Delicious! I substituted plain 2% yogurt for the sour cream… didn’t even measure it that carefully… it might have been just a bit more than 1 1/4 C since I was emptying the carton. I used walnuts because that was what my neighbor had! (I discovered I was out of any kind of nuts!) Cooked in a dark glass dish and it was finished in 40 minutes. Thank you for the recipe, it’s a keeper!

Made the coffee cake and thought the cake portion was dense and too thick. I also thought the cake portion was too plain in flavor. I would add cinnamon to the cake portion of the recipe. The middle section needs to be thicker for more additional flavor to the coffee cake. I would try to make each portion of the coffee cake the same thickness to balance the flavor otherwise I thought to cut the cake portion in half and out the balance of the recipe into an 8×8 inch pan. I would play around with the batter too to not add the sour cream at the very end because the batter could be dense from over mixing it at the end. Love making new recipes. Tasted great when we warmed it up to eat

I made it this morning. Like others had suggested, I doubled my cream cheese ingredients. Also, I ended up doubling my butter amount for the topping because the consistency wasn’t right. It turned out delicious! Thanks for the recipe!

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Welcome to BAKEorBREAK, or BoB as we affectionately call it. I’m Jennifer and this is my journal of over a decade of adventures as an amateur baker. The recipes you'll find as you browse through the recipe index tend toward low-effort, high-reward although you'll find some special "worth the effort" treats, too. There's sure to be something delicious for everyone. Happy baking!